Notes / Commercial Description:
In the most worthy of pumpkin patches and during the silence of the midnight hour, the Greater Pumpkin raises up and pours a rich deep and burnished orange color. Heady aromas of bourbon, cinnamon, ginger, allspice and clove linger seductively over the thick white head of this tremendous brew. Its love at first sip as the full malt body, dominated by British crystal malt, brown sugar and pumpkin, slowly washes over your tongue. Bourbon barrel aging rounds out the flavors with notes of oak, vanilla, and bourbon. Pairs well with crisp autumn weather, crunchy fallen leaves, and the knowledge that your kids will be asleep soon so you can raid their Halloween candy bags.

A- Body is a uniformly translucent pumpkin hue-its pretty cloudy. Pours with a 2 finger or so smooth, creamy white head. This slowly, eventually fades to a nice thick collar. Little lacing is left behind in the glass.

S- Pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon and brown sugar stand out the most initially. Behind this is a distinct boozy astrigency. A slight bourbon sweetness can also be detected.

T-There is a very good balance initially of pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, sweet bourbon, and dry oak. Its quite complex. The finish is more astrigent-with some alcohol bitterness coming through-but the spices and pumpkin have almost equal strength. What lingers is a good bit of nutmeg and cinnamon, a hint of pumpkin-and a big alcohol warmth.

D- This is a very good, different pumpkin ale. The bourbon barrels add a different character-and certainly a big kick. This is clearly a strong pumkin ale that doesn't hide its booziness. Job well done by Clipper City here- one of my favorites from them.

$7.99 for a 22oz bottle @ Jacks.9.0%ABV per the bottle. Pumpkin ale aged in bourbon barrels, brewed with spices. No ingredients listed on the mfgr website. Pours out to a hazy burnt orange, requiring a hefty pour to achieve a decent head which recedes quickly leaves minimal lacing. Carbonation is mild. the aroma is a nice blend between the sweetness of the malts, pumpkin and spices. The spices are not overpowering which is common in a lot of this category. Maybe a little vanilla in the nose. The mouthfeel is soft and silky, dense, rich and syrupy. The taste is again, a great balance between the spices and malt. The malt is firm and compliments the spicing, which is not overbearing. Suggestion of vanilla and just a stinging peppery hint of bourbon in the aftertaste.

I'm not a fan of this style, but this is a wonderful pumpkin ale...without a doubt, the best I've had. It is very rich, so a 22oz bottle is plenty but I could see myself picking this up again next year, or even sitting on a few bottles.

Appearance:
The beer pours a nice thin but substantial head that is a creamy and fluffy white. The beer itself is a clear dark orange with a little bit of haze. The orange also appears to have hints of brown.

Smell:
The beer has a very spicy smell. The main notes appear to be clove and cinnamon that mix very well with the pumpkin. The pumpkin seems to be balanced with the spices and is very sweet. Additionally, hints of gingerbread come out as well in the smell. As the beer warms, the spices become much more dominant and the alcohol makes an appearance as well. Also, the beer takes on a buttery smell.

Taste:
Spices such as cinnamon and clove notes come out in the taste. The pumpkin also comes out very well. The spices and pumpkin mix decently with the bourbon but I think the bourbon mutes the other flavors. Hint of alcohol that increases over time as the beer gets warm and becomes more metallic. As the beer becomes even warmer, the beer balances itself with a slightly buttery taste but the metallic taste is still there.

Mouthfeel:
Biting carbonation and a medium bodied. The feel is a little thick but, ultimately, smooth. The beer also has a little bit of alcohol warmth.

Overall:
A pretty decent imperial pumpkin ale and one that I will probably pick up again next year when it comes out.

Good Pumpkin Ale. Pours a hazy iced tea color with a small off white head that fades fast. Minimal lacing. Aroma is fairly mild. There is pumpkin, a little pumpkin spices and some aroma from the bourbon barrel. Taste is much stronger. The sweet malt and pumpkin come out strongest in the taste followed by the bourbon flavor. There is allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg here as well. There is also some bitterness from the oak barrel. Mouthfeel is rich with some slight booziness from the bourbon barrel flavor. Very enjoyable, especially on a cold night.

Tonight, my wife and I did a comparison test with this one and it's younger brother: "The Great Pumpkin."

On each of the Heavy Seas bombers, there is a story printed. The two Heavy Seas pumpkin beers have EXACTLY the same story, except on this one, the final sentence is: "From the haunted wood emerges the Great'er Pumpkin of them all!"

A: Nice Halloween orange color, with this just one shade darker than the non-barrel aged version. The carbonation is medium and there is about a half inch head on it.

S: It sort of smells like dark fruit dipped in bourbon. If I hadn't know this was a pumpkin ale beforehand, I never would have pegged it as that.

T: Nothing but bourbon wrapped in fruit (notice that I didn't say it the other way around). It may not be a great taste, but it is definitely one of the most interesting pumpkin brews I've ever tasted. The pumpkin tastes BBQd, burnt even, with subtle fruit notes on the aftertaste.

M: This is definitely creamier that "The Great Pumpkin", but I find it far less satisfying. The bourbon relentlessly beats you over the head and doesn't take any prisoners.

D: This is a very interesting experiment, however, I don't believe that this is a style that works as a barrel-ages concoction. When I go shop for a pumpkin ale, I want just that...a pumpkin-flavored ale.

After trying Avery's Rumpkin recently, I redoubled my efforts to acquire this beer, and, as luck would have it, I ended up with 5 of them. Fortunately, it is quite enjoyable. Pours a dark golden color, bordering on amber, with a good dirty white head on top. Aromas of bourbon initially, giving way to vanilla, cinnamon and a host of supporting pumpkin pie spices. On the palate, this one drinks way to easily for 9%, with a nice creamy mouthfeel, and flavors of brown sugar and sweet malt, buffered by autumn spicing and a lingering boozy finish. Very nice.

Poured from a 12 OZ bottle into a pint glass. Aroma- Has a big pumpkin smell with cinnamon Appearance- Pours an amber color with a medium sized white head. Taste- Tastes like PUMPKIN!! Palate- A medium bodied brew with mild carbonation. Overall- A great pumpkin beer!

The Greater Pumpkin has a hazy orange body with a ton of sediment floating throughout it. The head is off-white in color and more than two fingers tall.

The aroma is really nice: pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, bourbon and some sweet malt.

I really liked the idea of a pumpkin beer aged in bourbon barrels, because I figured that pumpkin beers have such strong flavors that they could stand up to barrel-aging. I think I was right, as I like how the flavors work together in Greater Pumpkin. Bourbon and pumpkin mix together at first, coupled with an array of spices that include cinnamon and nutmeg. As the spices fade they mix with a woody flavor. A little bit of sweet malts shine through toward the finish, and also a low hop-bitterness. A blast of warmth from the alcohol finishes it.

The body is pretty full with a creamy smoothness. Good mouthfeel for a beer that is this big and packed with strong flavors.

Pumpkin spices and bourbon are two flavors that can be unpleasantly overpowering in a beer. Mixed together, the two manage to complement each other quite nicely. This beer is a little bit hot and boozy, especially as it warms.

Highly carbonated deep amber colored with a fluffy slightly off white head that holds good retention and leaves nice lace.

Nose of bourbon, vanilla, sweet oak, toasty woods, hints of nutmeg and cinnamon, with an underlying of toffee.

Decent beer but a pumpkin ale? The bourbon shows through nicely but like the bourbon barley wine it's not necassarily the best bourbon out there at least the way it's aged. Ahh some hints of cinnamon and nutmeg with a butternut squash finish and a bit of oxidation on the finish as well. Some toffee malt oak and vanilla in the middle but not much else. Good but not what I was hoping.

22oz bottle into a snifter. Sampled alongside the regular Great Pumpkin, which I believe I actually prefer to this.

The pour produces an off white head on top of the dirty pumpkin orangeish brown body. Not a great looking beer, the head quickly recedes and doesn't leave good lace. Just a bit above average here, but mostly the same look as the Great Pumpkin.

The smell is where the two beers start to differ. This has some spices, namely cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove, but also features some well-integrated bourbon. There's not a lot of malt, and the bourbon is just barely there - enough to notice but not a huge dominant component. There's also some notes of vanilla and butterscotch, and maybe even some brown sugar, but they're not very expressive. This was a step back from the very expressive and pleasant nose of the Great Pumpkin. Also, some really heavy booze emerges. This gained a single percent but apparently that was all raw booze.

Whereas the Great Pumpkin has a nice sweetness to the taste, that quality is taken away by the bourbon in this version, and I can't say it's for the best. The caramel is replaced with dry bourbon and wood, but the notes I would have liked - oak tannins, coconut, vanilla - aren't prominent or, in some cases, even present. Some spice and bourbon sting don't work that well together, and, while it has bready tastes and isn't a bourbon bomb, the beer just looses so much sweetness and replaces it with bourbon and booze.

The mouthfeel is OK, medium body and medium carbonation, with some lingering booze and spice. Overall, this was just not working for me, and I was very excited by the idea. The execution, however, was just not great, but an admirable attempt. I'd love if someone made a bourbon barrel aged pumpkin beer with lots of vanilla from the barrel, maybe a barrel aged imperial chocolate pumpkin stout. That's the ticket. Until that get's released, stick to the regular Great Pumpkin or pour a bit of Makers Mark into a Southern Tier Pumking (don't try that at home, I'm kidding).

T: A wave of cinnamon and pumpkin spice dominates for a while. Striking impression of graham cracker. Bourbon and barrel flavors pick up steam on the mid palate, but the spicing never goes away. Bourbon, oak, and caramel punch through the spices from time to time. Pleasant shortbread and toffee malt backbone is stifled. Pumpkin comes on strong toward the back end. Finishes with long lingering cinnamon.

O: The English malts are delicious on the rare occasions that they are allowed to peek through the iron curtain of spices. The barrel flavors are comforting and enticing as well. Tone back the spicing by half and this would be an excellent beer, but as it stands it's a bit much.

Taste kicks off with bold bourbon and progresses to vanilla, unsweetened pumpkin pie, wet oak, stale graham cracker and a bunch of booze. While my description may not sound appetizing, it's actually pretty good. The alcohol bite can be distracting but I just play it off as the bourbon.

Medium full bodied with mild carbonation.

An interesting variation of the ever popular fall seasonal pumpkin brew. I haven't tried the base beer but I'm not sure it's quite enough to stand up to the bourbon barrel aging. The woodsy bourbon is nice but the pumpkin kind of gets lost in the mix. Still, a pretty good value as far as barrel aged imperials go and I don't regret the purchase.

My favorite pumpkin beer which is surprising since I am not usually a huge fan of bourbon barrel aging. Heavy Seas does a great job with balancing the pumpkin and bourbon flavors so that neither dominates the other.

2013 vintage. 22oz bottle poured into a tulip. Pours a light copper with a fluffy off-white head that fades and leaves nice retention and decent lacing. The aromas are loaded with caramel malts. Lots of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Lots of vanilla. There's a nice amount of graham cracker. Not much oak. The bourbon is extremely subtle. The flavors are very earthy. Lots of spices. More cinnamon and ginger. The bourbon characteristics seem non-existent. It's hard to tell that this was even thrown in bourbon barrels. It tastes good, but loses points for lacking the barrel presence. Mouthfeel is full-bodied, but somewhat thin. Active carbonation making it smooth and drinkable. Alcohol goes unnoticed.

This is a fine pumpkin ale. The only flaw is that the bourbon and oak characteristics seem to be absent, in my opinion. I personally don't think aging this beer will make it improve.

Out of a bottle purchased at Hopheads this beer was a hazy orange color with a thin layer of white head. The retention was not very good but it did leave some streaks of lacing throughout the sample. The aroma was an appealing blend of pumpkin, spices, booze, caramel malt and hints of toasted nuts. The flavors were good and definitely put it amongst one of the best pumpkin beers I’ve had. It was doubtlessly boozy right from the beginning with notes of bourbon and vanilla but beyond that first wave was the pumpkin and spices one would expect followed by the subtle notes of caramel and butterscotch. I suspect this beer would age really well because I felt the strong booze notes were quashing some of the potential complexity. The mouthfeel was good, the body medium/full and the carbonation on-point. A “big” beer but a good one and exactly what I’d expect from Heavy Seas.

We crack a bomber of their 2013 stock with the new label, pouring a brew of rich reddish pumpkin coloring into our large tasting snifters. It holds a creamy two finger head of easily reproducible sandpaper foam, with airiness resembling frothing sea foam. Lacing is in wet cords around the glasses. A definite haze cuts clarity, but no sediment is noted. Carbonation appears to be active around the edges, but slow. The aroma whiffs of bright and souring oak, light mossiness, coiny metallics, apple cider vinegar, clean vanilla, fusel burn of smoky bourbon and nail polish remover, black pepper, cinnamon, allspice, sour lemon citrus, black currant, fresh whipped cream, and fresh pumpkin pulp and seed. Our first impression is that while the booze is high towards the front of the sip, it ends with nice sweetness and balance. As we sip, you are hit primarily with big fusel booziness, amber and caramel maltiness, table salt, granite, bittered oak, black pepper and biting cinnamon spice, lemon peel, chemical burn, plastics, and parchment paper. The middle to the peak immediately eases up, with sweetness of warmed brown sugar, thick caramel maltiness with nice roast and warmth, sweet bourbon booziness, buttery diacetyls, coconut fruitiness, cleaner oak, light plastics, lactic creaminess, and continued bite of citric rind. The end washes with sweet cinnamon-sugar, vanilla icing and extract, cherry sweetness, that continued core of sweet booziness, phenolic plastics, sweaty and dirty oak, salt and pepper, flakey pastry cream puffs, and a gritty, wheaty type malt. The aftertaste breaths of cold pumpkin pulp, aluminum foil and icy metallics, fusel smokiness, bourbon and oak, gingerbread and cinnamon, fresh pumpkin vegetals, sheeted plastics, heavy creamer, burnt butters, and wheat breadiness. The body is medium to full, and the carbonation is reasonably high. Each sip comes on pleasant froth, cream, foam, slurp, smack, and pop. The mouth is initially coated with syrupy thickness, but quickly warms, and then dries with light astringent pucker. The abv is appropriate, and the beer sips nicely.

Overall, the most enjoyable aspect of this beer was its aroma. This initially came across as quite booze and metallic, but as it warmed, those notes faded, allowing the beauty of the spice and the gourd to flourish. That said, the flavoring to follow lacked the punch that we’ve come to expect from these big, oaky pumpkin beers. The oak was actually great, and almost overly so because of how sour it was, but the pumpkin was rather flat. This is not to the fault of the brewer, but rather to the fault of the product itself, as it is inherently not very spicy or savory in its flavoring. There was, however, enough spice added to keep things interesting, and to meet the wood in full. This was a nice beer for sure, and we are glad to have had it fresh, while the bourbon barreling is in full season, but we suggest you wait a bit if you want a cooler, more buttery, and smooth-sipping beverage.

A: Reddish amber color with quite a bit of stuff floating in suspension. A half finger of white head with some lacing.

S: The nose is mostly nutmeg. For a bourbon aged beer this nose is tight when it should really be bright. Not that impressed at all.

T: No bourbon at all which is a disappointment. Not much pumpkin either. More pumpkin spices which I think it a way to turn an ale into a pumpkin ale. It is not bad and there are no off flavors or anything like that but it is just kind of meh for me. The idea of a bourbon pumpkin ale really exited me but the execution left me wanting more.

M:Medium bodied. Carbonation is soft and pleasing.

D: A friend had this on cask and said it was one of the best beers that he had ever had. This was a big let down for me. I think they might have a small issue on the bottling line. Their draft beers are always remarkably better. For a big barrel aged beer this is kind of bland.

S: Not getting a lot of barrel. Lots of fleshy pumpkin and spices. Cinnamon and nutmeg. Vanilla. Sweet English malts. As it warms you do get the bourbon. Very nice vanilla/toffee/caramel meshing with pumpkin.

T: Touch of bitterness on the tip of the tongue. You get that fleshy pumpkin and pie like spice blend. Initially not getting much barrel character, over just general vanilla flavors from pie filling blend of spices. Some sweetness. Finish is drier than expected.

T: Sweet rush of roasted malts and pumpkin with accompanying spices, but more mellow, warm and booze-spicy because of the bourbon-barrel aging. Imparts flavors of wet tobacco leaf, earthy and herbal malt as well as a good amount of spicy pumpkin-driven hop bitterness. Washes down mellow, smooth and rather boozy.

M: Heavy, rich and full-bodied mouthfeel with mellow vanilla-oaky smoothness and a bourbon sting in the finish. A nice sipper.

O: Very interesting twist on an imperial pumpkin, leave it to Heavy Seas to make one feel even more jacked up with the additional bourbon-aging. Sit around the fire and sip in the 9% ABV Great'er Pumpkin with ease. Or in a sincere pumpkin patch.

T: sweet, but not too sweet - you taste what you smell: all the pumpkin pie tastes shift around with notes of bourbon, caramel, and ale. Boozy. 2013 version was a cleaner and leaner model. tight pumpkin flavors and an air of sophistication brought about by the bourbon. Suggestions of caramel, vanilla, and airy wood.

M: lightly carbonated, clean finishing, mild alcohol taste. Seems like all pumpkin ales warm very nicely. Rich. Toned down textures and weight in the 2013 release improve the mouthfeel and finish - the bourbon breathed easier and the finish was far drier.

O: WOW - I have found a pumpkin ale on par with Pumking and Smashed Pumpkin (my other faves so far) - Heavy Seas (the "greater pumpkin" version) is smack-dab in the middle in terms of tone and mouthfeel, but set apart due to the bourbon aspect - a slightly more enjoyable drink for fans of bourbon and imperial stouts. the 2013 eclipsed the aforementioned beers, taking full benefit of whatever changes may have been made to the recipe.

Clipper City Brewing has crafted a beer that is amazing. It has some of the syrupy-sweetness of Pumking, and some of the crispness of Smashed Pumpkin - throw in the bourbon accents and you have a flavorful pumpkin ale. Heavy Seas rolls with a bangin' (newly upgraded (from 9.0))10.0 abv, and that's got to be hard to beat. Get one if you see it.